[ LETTER ]

Thu, Jan 03, 2013 - Page 8

Iran’s right to atomic power

Whereas a recent article in your paper recognizes the dangers of a conflict with Iran, its analysis accepts without challenge the belligerent logic of the US administration (“The costs of a US war with Iran are simply too high,” Dec. 31, page 9).

Iran has a sovereign right to develop peaceful uses of atomic power, it is a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and any evidence of its developing weapons is sketchy, probably manufactured and definitely premature.

Concerns about Middle East nuclear weapons are real. The US maintains nuclear weapons there as does Israel, a pariah state which refuses to submit to international controls or even provide any information.

Iran has always maintained that all parties sign a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone which the US and Israel adamantly refuse. Under these circumstances, that Iran mistrusts the United States and Israel is completely understandable.

The United States more and more presents itself as a country torn by satanic, violent impulses, internally and externally, whose pathological attitude toward Iran is motivated only by regime change and revenge. Ever since 1979 this policy has never wavered.